Data center capex soars
Data centers appear to be attracting more capital than any other communications infrastructure, thanks to investment from the largest cloud service providers.
"
Our 2Q18 checks yield mixed data points regarding 2018 capex spending, with data center and web-scale spending providing the largest opportunities, while our outlook for service provider and cable operator spending remains largely unchanged and uninspiring," analyst Simon Leopold of Raymond James wrote in a research note.
Google, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft and Apple continue to shovel cash into data centers, collectively investing more than $18 billion during the first quarter, according to Synergy Research Group. The analysts say data center capex usually declines during the first quarter, but this year it was up more than 20% from Q4, hitting $27 billion during the first 3 months of 2018.
Service providers have been exiting the data center business in order to focus their capital investment elsewhere. AT&T recently sold 31 data centers to Brookfield and Verizon sold 29 data centers to Equinix last year.
Meanwhile the wireless infrastructure industry is investing in data centers that can be located at the edge of the mobile network. Crown Castle owns part of Vapor IO, Tiger Infrastructure Partners is an investor in Etix Everywhere, and EdgeMicro describes its list of funders as a "who's who of the telecom infrastructure industry."
Pittsburgh set to use Sprint small cells for smart energy solution
Sprint said the city of Pittsburgh announced plans to award a smart energy contract to BOSS Controls, which will use Sprint's Magic Box small cells for connectivity inside dozens of city buildings. The solution also relies on a Sprint modem with a Qualcomm chip that supports both Wi-Fi and LTE in order to connect the BOSS smart plugs to the Sprint network.
According to BOSS Controls founder
Greg Puschnigg, for every person living in the U.S. t
here are about 50 devices plugged in, left on and consuming energy when they don't need to be. "We turn those off," says Puschnigg. "The energy markets are moving to real-time pricing of energy. Instead of us turning things off based on schedules, we'll be able to turn things off based on the cost of electricity."
Sprint developed the Magic Box indoor small cell in partnership with Florida's Airspan and Japan's SoftBank, Sprint's parent company. The Magic Box uses wireless backhaul (LTE relay), meaning that it can be deployed in locations that do not have fiber or Ethernet available.
Raycap buys Stealth
Surge protection device maker Raycap said it has purchased STEALTH Concealment Solutions for an undisclosed amount. Raycap makes equipment to protect cell sites from power surges and STEALTH makes RF-transparent covers to conceal cell sites. The two companies have at least one important thing in common: they both know how to create custom solutions for telecom and wireless companies. Raycap says more than 50% of the products it delivers to clients are custom built, and STEALTH has said it now builds almost everything to customer specifications.
Small cells and 5G
New
research
from iGR highlights the integral role that small cells will play in 5G, and forecasts carrier capital spending and operational spending on small cells. The report includes detailed profiles of outdoor small cell solutions and vendors.
5G small cell growth is projected to significantly outpace LTE small cell growth in the years ahead. But LTE has a big head start, and iGR predicts that it will take some time for the number of 5G nodes to catch up. And 5G will not put a stop to LTE small cell deployments -- healthy growth is projected through 2022. Access the full report
here
.
